What Happens In Vegas

For those who aren’t aware, the National Rugby League and English Super League will be playing games in Las Vegas this coming weekend.

Four NRL teams, the Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors, defending premiers the Penrith Panthers and Cronulla Sharks, will kick off round one of the 2025 season.

English Super League teams, the Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves, will also make the trek to Sin City, along with the Australian and English women’s teams.

While teams have been over there for some time, training and acclimatising, the players were due to have some downtime at some stage. Behaviour had been good with players with footage and pictures and news showing them players to be soaking it all in.

However, multiple news outlets reported that two Canberra Raiders players, Hudson Young and Morgan Smithies, had been evicted from their hotel. There was some system outage, and the front desk staff couldn’t find their names. The outage caused people to wait up to seven hours.

Security also thought one of the players had a weapon, but it turned out to be an inflatable bat. Hudson and Smithies were allowed to re-enter the hotel. Raiders coach Ricky Stuart told the Sydney Morning Herald the incident happened three days ago, and he had dealt with it strongly. Hudson and Smithies will face the media to explain their actions (3 a.m. AEDT).

As the saying goes, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,’ but not while rugby league journalists are also there.

Rugby League at Allegiant Stadium

Sunday, March 2nd, 8 a.m. Kickoff

Wigan Warriors vs Warrington Wolves (Super League)

Canberra Raiders vs New Zealand Warriors (NRL)

Australian Jillaroos vs England Lionesses (International match)

Penrith Panthers vs Cronulla Sutherland Sharks (NRL)